Color Coding

So Kino Lorber finally sent me that 4K disc of Out of Sight.

I mean, “finally” is stretching it. The new UHD edition of Steven Soderbergh’s exquisite 1998 caper picture only reached stores at the end of last month, and my review copy got to me as quickly as it could. But I’ve been waiting for this particular release for what seemed like an eternity, and I’m so, so glad it delivers.

Let’s take a moment to talk about Kino Lorber, actually. Over the last few years, the New York-based label has gone from “eccentric imprint putting out top-notch editions of silents and obscurities" to “holy crap they have a licensing deal with them, too?” levels of terrific 4K and Blu-ray releases. In addition to a steady stream of titles from half a dozen indie shops and their own theatrical imprint, Kino Lorber has also started rolling out dozens of titles from Disney, Universal, MGM, and now Paramount in beautiful 4K and 2K editions – and not just putting Criterion to shame by releasing UHD versions of recent Criterion Blus like The Great Escape, Some Like it Hot and The Silence of the Lambs but beating them to the punch on films they probably would have wanted to release, like Soderbergh’s marvelous little Elmore Leonard adaptation.

You know Out of Sight, right? The movie that arguably saved George Clooney’s movie career after Batman & Robin, similarly saved Jennifer Lopez from a career as a sex bomb rather than an A-list actor and also served notice that this Soderbergh guy could handle commercial storytelling as well as anybody. It made hardly a ripple on its theatrical release in the summer of 1998, mostly because Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown was still sucking up all the oxygen available to sultry, self-aware adaptations of Elmore Leonard masterworks – but it found its audience on home video, and now stands as one of the finest films of its kind … as well as the beginning of a truly remarkable creative run for Soderbergh that gave us The Limey, Erin Brockovich, Traffic and Ocean’s Eleven.

Personally, I’d argue the run never really stopped. Soderbergh is my favorite American filmmaker, consistently playing interesting and complex variations on whichever genre catches his fancy, and with the exception of the weird erotic thriller-cum-conspiracy-drama Side Effects I’ve been delighted by and engaged with literally everything he’s ever done. But the five films he made between ’98 and ’01 are just head and shoulders above the rest, the work of an artist at the top of his powers, inspiring his collaborators to do their best work as well.

Revisiting Out of Sight in this gorgeous new Ultra High Definition transfer – which presents the film exactly as I remember it looking the night I saw it projected at Toronto’s late, lamented York theatre, with film grain and carefully distinct color temperatures for each strand of the deftly rearranged chronology – it’s clear that this is a film made to celebrate the specific talents of everyone involved, letting Clooney’s matinée-idol magnetism and Lopez’ formidable self-possession further complicate the attraction between recidivist crook Jack Foley and righteous federal marshal Karen Sisco. Of course these two smart, funny, stunning professionals belong together. They just have to reconcile that whole opposite-sides-of-the-law thing, which is complicated by a parade of perfectly cast character actors that only grows more impressive as the years go by. (Three words: Viola goddamn Davis.)

It occurred to me this time through that Soderbergh is one of the few filmmakers who never tries to play down the attractiveness of his actors – instead, his movies show us, over and over, that good looks can only get a person so far. (Magic Mike is his thesis statement on this, if you were wondering.)

Anyway, if you’ve managed to miss out on Out of Sight until now, I am genuinely envious of the experience you’re about to have; if you’re already a fan, this release is an excellent upgrade from Universal’s undistinguished Blu-ray. (If you’re not set up for 4K, Kino Lorber has also released a separate Blu-ray edition, sourced from the same master.)

There are no new supplements, but both discs include all the material produced for Universal’s earlier DVD and Blu-ray special editions: A fun commentary by Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Frank, a half-hour making-of featurette, 20 minutes of deleted scenes and two trailers. I still don’t know why this wasn’t a bigger hit at the time, but maybe that’s a good thing; if it had been as big as Universal expected, Soderbergh might have found himself making thrillers exclusively for the next decade, and think of all the pleasures we might have missed.

Incidentally, Kino Lorber’s online summer sale is scheduled to end tomorrow – though the company’s been known to extend its bigger sales at the last minute – so here’s a handy list of all the 4K titles. You’re welcome.

I’ve been meaning to write about Ms. Marvel for a while too, but I wanted the limited series to wrap up before I weighed in. Endings have not been the strongest suit of the current Marvel television project – although Hawkeye and Moon Knight weren’t bad – and Ms. Marvel was simultaneously so ambitious in its scope and so personal in its focus on Kamala Khan, Jersey City kid who finds herself becoming one of the superheroes she idolizes, that I was worried the show might overreach with one of those great big wizard-hands throwdowns we so often get in place of a climax centered in character and feeling.

Not to worry. Ms. Marvel did indeed stick the landing of the series, with creator Bisha K. Ali orchestrating a high-school standoff between Iman Vellani’s Kamala and her pals and the dweebs at the Department of Damage Control that felt entirely appropriate to the characters and their world. With the whole world watching – or at least most of Kamala’s neighborhood – the DoDC meatheads marched into a series of a non-lethal prank traps that would not have felt out of place in the first Spider-Man movie.

Not every Marvel show has to be filled with brooding and carnage. Ms. Marvel started out as a show about a charming kid who gets superpowers and can’t wait to use them, and Ali and directors Adil & Bilal – who collectively set the show’s tone in the first episode – came back around to that for the finale. After a sojourn in Partition-era India and Pakistan and the deaths of the season’s primary villains, the Clandestines, Kamala spent the finale doing the thing she does best: Protecting her friends from bullies.

It’s a quality that connects her to Steve Rogers as well as Carol Danvers, and Vellani plays it beautifully; over six episodes, her arc from nervous fangirl to self-conscious power ranger to genuine hero has developed organically and with no small amount of charm. Vellani’s a natural, sure, but she also understands how to channel the specific demands of a superhero story without getting caught in the machinery. Whatever she’s doing, she’s always emotionally invested. And the show keeps finding ways to ground Kamala, even when she’s doing super-stuff: She might be able to run across thin air, but she still respects traffic lights. (It’s a nice little detail that reminds us Kamala is still just a kid.)

The end titles promised us Ms. Marvel will return in The Marvels – which, duh – but I would be perfectly happy to see Kamala’s story continue as a TV series; this is one of the few Marvel shows that makes the most of the sprawl offered by an episodic format, using the extra time to develop Kamala’s family and friends and bringing those details into play for that final episode. Also, the “mutation” thing? Whatever. Kamala’s already one in a million.

See? I was worried about Ms. Marvel overreaching, but I forgot the most important thing: Kamala Khan’s an embiggener. There’s nothing she can’t reach if she puts her mind to it.

Next week: Criterion’s Devil In a Blue Dress, and at least one other thing. I’ll figure it out.